Guaranteed basic income would reduce poverty in Canada by 40 per cent, according to analysis from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
Guaranteed basic income(GBI) is a framework that would provide everyone with a minimum income, which would come in the form of regular payments from the government, using the tax system.
There are multiple ways it could be implemented. In the PBO’s analysis, the program would ensure families living in the same household would receive no less than $30,795. Single individuals would receive no less than $21,903. The amount of basic income received would be reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned.
The parliamentary budget officer or PBO for short is a neutral and non-partisan agent of parliament .The job of the office is to provide senators and members of parliament with economic and financial advice.
The latest report comes from the evolution of a years long process.
“ The discussion began in 2018 when a parliamentarian formally requested that the PBO estimate the cost of implementing a national GBI program.,” said Nasreddine Ammar, an economist with the PBO and one of the authors of the analysis. “ The conversation around basic income gained significant traction in 2020, largely through the COVID 19 pandemic and the introduction of what was called the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.”
The pandemic and CERB led to increased interest in basic income among parliamentarians, which led the PBO to expand its analysis to look at how different income groups would be impacted if a guaranteed basic income program was implemented.
Their most recent analysis puts the cost of one version of the program around 53 billion dollars, which would be offset through changes to the tax system including the cancelling of various tax credits and programs, and adjustments to the basic personal amounts exempt from income taxes.
People First Radio spoke with Ammar and Marianne Laurin, co-author of the report and an economic analyst with the PBO, as well as PBO advisor-analyst Louis Perrault. The program also spoke with Royal Roads professor Tracy Smith-Carrier, and featured audio from a webinar on basic income hosted by Waterloo Ontario based charity The Tamarack Institute.
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